Know Your Organic Producers!Joel and Annalisa Wild Miller of Wild Miller Farm in Palermo raise MOFGA-certified organic produce and hay, which they sell through their farm stand/credit-system CSA, wholesale accounts and at the Common Ground Country Fair. They farm with draft horses and say, "We believe that carefully executed and ecologically sound farming is an art, something we constantly strive for. Also that farming with draft animals is a craft, one that we try to improve upon every day." They are also raising their two young children on the farm. For more information, please visit www.wildmillergardens.com.Please support MOFGA certified organic farmers and producers!

“Impossible farming”The Contrary Farmer - 2/13/2010.By Gene Logsdon – There is Successful Farming, Progressive Farming, Organic Farming, Natural Farming and an awful lot of Wishful Farming. I would like to add to the list one more kind: Impossible Farming. I just ran across another example of it. Pat Hill, in her always interesting weekly blog on Progressive Farmer online, mentioned recently an interesting statistic or two when she was discussing the challenges that grain elevators face these days. A twelve row corn combine can harvest 20,000 to 24,000 bushels of corn a day. A modern, state of the art grain dryer can dry 6000 bushels of shelled corn from 20% moisture down to 15% in an hour. (Corn has to be that dry to store safely.) But with corn at 25% moisture, that drier can reduce moisture to 15% of only 3000 bushels in an hour.

Tracking US farmers’ supply of nitrogen fertilizerGrist - 2/12/2010. By Tom Philpott – We burn through more of it per capita than any other country; and our appetite for it can only be sated with massive imports. No, not oil – I’m talking about nitrogen fertilizer. With only 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. consumes nearly 12 percent of the globe’s annual synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production.

Socialist milkBangor Daily News - 2/12/2010.Editorial – Vaughn Chase was milking his cows Monday afternoon, listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio, when he heard his name resonate through the barn. The cows may have been the only witnesses to the shocked look on the Aroostook County farmer’s face when he heard the Voice of the Right accuse him of scheming to pervert capitalism.

How our food system is destroying the nation’s most important fisheryGrist - 2/11/2010. By Krista Hozyash – To understand our impact on nature, there is truth in the saying, “everything is connected.” Few situations illustrate this concept as dramatically as the agricultural wastes from the Midwest that contribute so seriously to the aquatic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sunday, 1 p.m., 769 Congress Street, Portland Maine. Join Chef Frank Giglio as we learn about and make mead! In this class you will learn the step by step method for preparing your own medicinal mead at home. Each student will start a batch of mead during the class and be able to take it home to ferment and later enjoy. Fee information and registration here: http://www.mofgastore.org/product.sc?productId=270&categoryId=5. Questions? Email alibby@mofga.org.

Tuesday, Maine Civic Center, Augusta. MOFGA offers presentations and discussion groups covering a wide range of sustainable agriculture subjects. Presentations are free and open to the public, and are held in the Washington/York Room, the Piscataquis/Sagadahoc Room, and the Oxford Room. No pre-registration required. MOFGA also has an information exhibit during all three days of the Trades Show. MOFGA members are encouraged to attend the Association's Annual Meeting, which will be held from 1:30 to 3:00 in the Piscataquis/Sagadahoc Room.

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, Unity. Instructor is David Smith of Sparky's Apiaries. Our beekeeping short course will cover the essentials to get you going in the world of beekeeping. Fee: $50 for MOFGA members; $75 for non-members. More information.